The Mermaid: A Retelling
by TheScarlettSmiles
Summary: When Ariel saved Eric, she thought she'd found everything she'd ever wanted. Someone she could give up everything for and still be safe in the end. When it turns out he isn't what she thought, but the Captain of the Guard is, she has to choose between what she wants and what she thought she wanted. The wrong choice could kill her... And everyone she loves.
1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note: This story is a mix of the original fairy tale by Hans Christian Anderson and the lovely Disney movie. I do not own some of these characters, you can recognize them from the movie, so do not sue me, I come in peace. throughout the line there might be lemons, thus the rating, so don't read if you are underage. Happy readings! **

Chapter 1

Halia held Ariel up to the sky, watching the tight red curls that danced around her daughter's head as the breeze dried their skin. The small gills underneath small reddened ears fluttered closed as her natural instinct took over to breathe through her nostrils.

She laughed as her child's emerald tail flicked the air as if trying to swim into the sky. The soft scales that covered Ariel's tail and a small section of her forearm had darkened only the slightest bit since her birth, which had only been a few weeks ago. The scales in question were a vibrant green, some blue in the right light, but all had the same gold sheen that made her tail shine in the sun.

A sun that was supposed to be seen from below the water's surface.

Halia swept her gaze over the span of the ocean before smiling at her giggling baby. She was holding her high in the air, well over the surface, letting her child feel the cool morning air of the cove.

"My little mermaid!" She brought her baby back down to the water, laughing as Ariel tried once again to swim into the air, struggling against Halia's hold. Halia flicked her tail with one strong motion, letting them sink into the water, her own red locks surrounding them both, before spinning and letting Ariel go to float by herself. She watched carefully as Ariel's strong little tail swept to and fro, trying her hardest to move.

"Come on, you can do it," Halia urged gently, "you can't swim through the air, but you can swim here, you've got it!" She held her daughters small hand in her own, leading her through a school of fish as Ariel started to get her fins about her.

She was a natural swimmer, Halia led them through the rich vegetation, being careful to avoid eels and the camouflage fish. She showed her the starfish that were wallowing on the sand the stingrays that swam over there heads, the small sharks that weren't bigger than Ariel herself, they were more playful than anything. Despite the richness of the world around her, Ariel more than once tugged on her mothers hand and tried to float to the surface. Halia's bit her lip as she recognized the need. She herself had had it for many years, before she'd merely started to give up and swim to the surface.

As she and Ariel emerged, she did her scan of the surface again on reflex. She'd been to the surface so many times that it was automatic. They were near a small island, nothing large enough to attract the legged creatures, but enough that it was a possible threat, but this was information she already knew. This was Halia's favorite spot.

Ariel was tugging on her hand again, Halia held on, "Ariel, you're just starting out, I can't risk letting you run off on your own, especially up here." She scooped up Ariel in quick move, than swam them to the large boulder that sat close to the island, it was in the perfect spot. She set little wriggling Ariel up on the hard surface and used her arms to haul herself up onto the rock. She brought her tail up and wrapped it around them both, making a barrier so that Ariel wouldn't get away from her. Ariel's little pink face was scrunched up as she picked up a small conch shell and wandered her fingers over its surface. Halia ran her fingers through Ariel's hair and untangled it as Ariel idly played with the shells that had gathered on the rocks.

"I come here often when I want to think," she talked, her voice and the soothing sounds of the ocean the only thing that could be heard. "Ha, this is actually where I met your father," she cringed, "he would be angry that I brought you up here. You weren't actually supposed to see the surface until you were eighteen. He dislikes the surface, so even though you can't yet speak, never reveal that you've come up here. In fact, I won't surface anymore either!"

The declaration was out of her lips before she could stop it. Her hands stilled. Her eyes widened. Tears actually stung the back of her eyes, shocking her. Mermaids don't cry over trivial things.

Could she actually give up the surface for eighteen years? If not, how was she going to explain her absences to Ariel or Poseidon. She knew Poseidon knew of her affection for the upper world, but she didn't think he knew of how much time she really spent up on this very rock. She resumed fixing Ariel's hair, but now her tail was flicking at the water nervously.

"Well, I'll promise to do my best. I also promise to tell you how I met your father someday, but not until you're older, so you can at least imagine why I choose to go through with it... But, I will tell you that I wasn't even able to wait until my eighteenth birthday, to visit the surface, I first visited when I was thirteen. It was glorious, but I was so afraid of my family finding out. Many mermaids dislike this world..." Her voice trailed off, she looked down and seen Ariel's eyes shutter closed as she yawned. Halia grinned, "am I putting you to sleep?" Ariel was clutching the little shell to her chest, as she leaned back into Halia's side. "Go ahead and sleep, my little mermaid."

Halia leaned back on one of her arms, with the other wrapped around Ariel, she started to hum. The sound was gentle and flowed through her throat, before long she added words, keeping her tone soft, Ariel was relaxed and sleeping before the words even left her mouth.

It was the song that her mother had sang to her and the song her grandmother had sang to her daughter. Every lineage had a song that followed them down the line, and when two new families came together, the songs mixed and became even more enchanting. A mermaid's song had the power to defend, to protect and if the legend was true it could lure mortal men to do dangerous things. Voices had to be protected, because if the wrong person heard it, bad things could happen, but that was merely the rumors of the mer people. That mortals couldn't control themselves when they heard their music.

Halia had never known anyone or had been in a situation where her voice lured a mortal, so she sang to Ariel. It was meant just for Ariel.

She was so careful when she came the surface, she was constantly watching for danger, always careful, she had never been in danger herself though she surfaced almost daily. She always swam away if there was even a sign of the legged beings that almost looked like her. So, for the first time, she didn't see on the other side of the island the danger that she was luring.

* * *

"Turn the prow to starboard!"

"Captain?"

"Do as I say." Captain Stephen Branch glanced back at Laurent. "You are new to the crew, so I'll let you down gently. Do not question my authority, I want my wishes executed and done promptly. I am soon to be Captain of the Guard to the King, I am so far above you that it's a miracle that we can inhale the same air."

Laurent's arms shook as he checked his anger and pushed at the oars, turning the whale boat, the way he had indicated. "You'll be a good edition, boy, if you can control that temper." The boy, Laurent, didn't look at him and continued rowing with a stony expression.

Gibbs and the three other crew members wanted to question the order to turn, but didn't know how to ask. Stephen ignored them and turned back to the open ocean. In truth, even he himself didn't know why he'd asked them to turn, they had been headed straight for the small island that would hopefully house some food for the crew, but for some reason, he'd felt this tingling the back of his neck. He massaged the muscle in question. He was turning the boat so that they could go around the island, to the other side, but for what he wasn't sure of was... Why?

The tingling was getting stronger, Stephen ground his teeth as he tried to focus on the feeling. It was a feeling of power, of seduction, luring him to something that would change him.

"Captain, do you feel-" it was Gibbs voice that disrupted the sensation.

"Quiet!" He barked, desperate to find the source of the lure. They were next to the island now, the men's oars tangling in the weeds that grew from the water, but they continued coasting alongside it, rounding it slowly.

Than he heard it.

Stephen leaned forward, as the voice penetrated his ears, submerging him in a fog of allusion. He heard the cries of sated women, the joyous cries of winning a battle, the love he felt for the sea all at once. And over all that a feeling of happiness was the need to possess, to take, to have whatever it was that was making him feel this- this power. The sun beat down on his back as he heard one of his men groan, he turned to find Mic hunched over and clutching his ears. The other men in other states from need to even arousal. "What is it, man?"

"...ah... It's a... Mermaid!"

Stephen scoffed, "what are you about?" But even he had to admit, it certainly wasn't the men in the boat who was making his trousers strain, it was the sound, the voice.

"We have to turn around now!" Mic let go of his ears and grabbed an oar, pushing it on the island, making the boat shake dangerously.

"Shut up! All of you! Let go of the oar or die, Mic!" Stephen took out his pistol, he'd never been a short trigger, but he felt as if he could shoot Mic without a second thought anything to get his hands on the thing that was making him feel like this. He aimed straight at Mic's ugly face with a sneer, "don't you dare turn this boat around! Now, steer all of you... I want to see what's on the other side of this island." He couldn't believe his own words he'd never been that fast to anger before. What the hell was going on?

Everyone stilled as they stared down the pistol. They grabbed their oars one at a time, and slowly started with a quicker pace. But something Mic had said wandered back through Stephen's thoughts.

"Laurent."

"Yes?" The boy wasn't looking at him, but seemed to be listening to the song. It could be heard even more clearly now. There were words being sung, but in a language Stephen had never heard before.

"Prepare the harpoon. We aren't returning to the ship until I get what I want."

"Captain, I-"

"Do it," he levered the gun on Laurent. "Or die. I have to say you are quite young, to be dead man." Laurent met his eyes and in them, Stephen seen the anger that lay beneath the surface. But, in front of a gun, was no place to pick a fight, Laurent stood and prepared a harpoon, roping it with jerky movements.

"Don't forget to sharpen it."

The boy grabbed a knife off the ground and started sharpening the harpoon without a word.

"Good."

They were almost around the bend of the island, the song, getting louder as they closed in, was the best sound Stephen ever could have dreamed of. He closed his eyes for a mere moment, just listening to the sweet notes. He grabbed the harpoon from the boys hands, but didn't put the pistol down.

There it was.

There she was.

"Glorious." The breathless whisper fell from his lips before he could stop it. She was beautiful. She looked like a normal woman, her body naked in the stark sunlight, skin pale with a rosy blush. Long red hair pooled down her back in thick rope. Her breasts were heavy and bare. Her sweet face was turned towards the small child in her arms. But the strangest thing about her was the long tail that was in place of her legs, it was wrapped around the rock she lounged on. It was golden, and gleamed in the sunlight. She was a mermaid. The lore was true.

"She will be mine." He couldn't stop the words as much as he could stop the previous ones. Suddenly, her voice cut off, and she looked right at him. He'd spoken too loud.

He watched as her eyes filled with fear, and he knew that she was going to bolt, but with her cumbersome child in her arms, he was faster. He heard the men yell behind him as he lifted the harpoon.

* * *

Halia heard the voice before she saw who owned it.

No.

She frantically pushed Ariel away from her into the water, forcing her daughter under the surface away from danger before diving in after her. She didn't feel anything at first, only heard the muted yells of the legged creatures in their floating device. But the water was turning red around her.

She gulped water in as she gasped and floundered to find Ariel to make sure she wasn't hurt, Ariel was at the bottom laying on the sand staring up at her in confusion, she had no idea what was going on.

No mer people were in this area, Poseidon had no idea what she had been doing, how was anyone going to find them.

Reaching and stretching, she tried to reach Ariel, but something was holding her back, she looked behind her and seen a long stick protruding from her tail. Clouds of blood were filling the water obscuring her vision and filling the water she was breathing in. She fought harder, bringing forth a scream as the pain started to settle in. She reached back and jerked on the object, only making black dots come into her vision as the pain threatened to take over. She reached to the other side of the stick only to cry out as her hand caught on the sharp point, causing more blood to fill the water.

She needed to help Ariel, she had no one here who would help her. Would she be treated the same as Poseidon's other daughters if she couldn't help her, so many fears came to the forefront as the line that was attached to the stick that impaled her, was tugged on.

She felt the pull, the pressure as she fought it. She was being pulled back to the surface.

She fought the pain, and tried to swim back to Ariel, she used the muscles of her tail to propel herself. "Ariel, go!" Halia cried out, "swim! It's not safe here!Ariel was looking around wildly, near tears, she didn't know what was going on, she attempted to swim up to her mother, but Halia pushed her away, "no you have to leave, go!She pushed her again desperate to get her to leave, but she wouldn't.

Tears were coming now, blending with the ocean water, not knowing what else to do, but praying that he heard, "Poseidon!" She screamed, hoping that the King of the Sea, her lover, and the father of her child would hear her.

Her struggling body was pulled to the surface of the water as she did everything she could to get free. She watched as her scared baby tried to reach her again as she felt hard hands grab hold of her fin and drag her from the water.

She whispered her daughters name one more time as she was pulled from her family, her home, the one thing that she had always wanted to get out of, she was pulled from the sea.

* * *

The harsh reality was sinking in about what they had just done.

Stephen stood staring at the creature, one boot on each side of it's golden tail. The pistol that he held, smoking on the end. The shot had rang out in the morning air, rendering the men's ears useless.

All the temptation to own her, to have her, to have that feeling was gone... Stephen was back to himself and so were the men.

Gibb's was the first to speak, "You didn't have to shoot her, Captain..."

Stephen plowed a hand through his hair, "you seen her!" he pointed at the mermaid, "she was trying to escape." But, still even as the blood filled their boat, he knew he was I. The wrong.

"She was harpooned, there was no where she could go..."

Stephen glanced at Laurent when he spook, "You aren't a smart boy are you? I told you about talking back to me." He leveled the gun on Laurent, all his common sense gone.

But, he was stopped. Not by Laurent or another crew member or the conscience that had obviously fled him. What stopped him was his ship in the distance. His ship that held two dozen more crew, his life and livelihood, his bounty for the king.

The sky was darkening, he could hear the thunder before he saw the lightning. His mouth dropped open as the waves grew angry. Grew dangerous. The small whale boat they were in was swept from the island, the men holding on for dear life, but standing as he was Stephen didn't have a chance. He fell head first into the turbulent ocean.

He found himself unable to surface when a hard wave swept him under. As he gulped down bitter sea water, trying to breathe, he could swear something was keeping him just below the surface. In fact, his fingers breached the surface, he just couldn't get his face above.

As Stephen started to die, he would swear on his last breath that he heard a bellow of pain echo throughout the water, right before everything he knew went black

So close to life, but closer to death, but what was to be expected when you enraged the _God of the Sea. _

**Author's note: Alright, I have some cool ideas for this story, I know this isn't a lot to form an opinion on, but I can't wait to hear from you guys. I just want to thank the people that take the time to read my writing and if you haven't already, check out my Beauty and the Beast Retelling, which I will be adding to soon (I'm sorry I'm so slow!). Anywho thank you so much and can't wait to hear from you!:)**


	2. Chapter 2

Ariel eased her wispy fin through the crack in the rock. She held her webbed hand over her elbow to stop the scratch she had gotten from bleeding into the water. She did not need the Shark Mer here. She quickly blotted it with a tattered cloth from her satchel, to keep it from getting worse.

"Flounder, come on!" She braced her hands on each side of the split in the rock and peered in, searching for Flounder's gray ones. He was on the other side of the rock and he looked at her incredulously before attempting to push his arm through the opening, cursing when the coarse rock nicked his fin.

"Ariel, I'm much larger than you—there's no way I can fit through that, you barely could. I'll just have to go back the way we came."

"No, there has to be another way, it'll take too long that way and we'll miss the ceremony!" This was something that she couldn't possibly miss. If her fin was stuck under a boulder she would chew it off to make it to this ceremony. "You know as well as I do how important it is that I be there."

"Well maybe you should have thought that through before dragging me down here with you." He grumbled. He pushed against the rock uselessly from the inside, before giving up with a sound of annoyance.

She breathed deeply, trying to calm herself down before she started to panic. Bubbles erupted in the water from the gills on her neck as she expelled her breath. "Just stay there, we'll find something," saying it more for her benefit than for Flounder's.

"Where am I possibly going to go?" He mumbled sarcastically, his voice muffled from the layers between them. She shot a glare at him through the opening, seeing his eyes widen innocently, even as his lip curled. He found humor at the most inappropriate of times.

Ariel pushed her red hair over her shoulder and gathered it in her hand. Reaching for the small hand-held pronged object from her satchel, she twisted her hair so that it was atop her head, then stuck the pronged object in it to keep it secure. She was going to have to work to get flounder out of the cavern, she couldn't keep pushing her hair out of the way.

A good thing she had found the little prong from the cavern. And her father said there was no use for the human inventions, she thought to herself.

Not that her father would ever know she was coveting them, the human artifacts that is, that was just her secret and Flounder's and that's how she was determined to keep it.

She ran her fingertips up the surface of the jagged wall, searching for loose crevices and cracks, anything that might be a purchase. There was a lot of life on the wall such as weeds, colorful anemones, and starfish—all of which seemed a little perturbed at her pushing of them.

"Sorry," she whispered to a starfish that she groped by accident.

"As you should be," Flounder snorted back through the layers of rock.

"I wasn't talking to you," she snapped back as she brushed away tiny fish that had come out of the small holes in the wall to see what was going on. She heard Flounder sigh from inside. "You know you could search for an opening as well."

"I could, but where would be the fun in that?"

"Flounder… please. I have to be at the ceremony today. I have been looking forward to it since I was a child." She hung her head down. She wanted to go to the ceremony so badly that she contemplated the thought of leaving Flounder here and coming back for him afterwards. But, looking around at the water surrounding them, she knew this wasn't the best place for someone for royal blood to be alone in. Actually unless a skilled fighter, no one would be safe in the area that they had ended up in.

"Oh, alright."

"Thank you."

She continued looking for a chunk of rock to pull out and make the hole bigger, but there was nothing at all. They had entered the cavern from a little ways outside of Atlantis. The entrance had been on the sea floor and they had only noticed it from the way the sand on top had sunk into it like a funnel. So, together, she had convinced Flounder into helping her dig the entrance open. They had entered, her going first only to find that the entrance led to an underground and underwater cavern. They'd found many like it, but this one had been one of the longest. It was just what she had been hoping for.

The rumor was that all these underground caverns in the ocean had been caused by Poseidon—by accident. When he had first taken over the sea, he had had no royal court, no order to the life of the ocean. The land of the walking creatures had had plenty of courts and cities, so Poseidon being the all-powerful god he was, he took what he believed rightfully his. The city of Atlantis, supposedly had once been a diamond among coal on the surface world, it had held the riches, the scrolls, and the laws of the legged creatures. Poseidon felled it with one single storm. Atlantis sank to the sea and became the god's own court. The underwater caverns that Ariel had found a passion for exploring were caused by the city sinking from the surface, air became trapped underneath the sand and water and caused a maze of caverns.

Caverns that Ariel was absolutely dedicated to exploring. The 'human' things that had been trapped underwater, the things she had found over the years were interesting and exciting and overall they were forbidden- and that made her enjoy her findings all the more.

And after all these years, all these findings, she would finally have the chance to see it for herself. Tonight was her eighteenth birthday… and she was going to spend it in the human world.

She redoubled her efforts to find an exit for Flounder, wishing that they were already on their way back to the kingdom.

The trip through this cavern hadn't been a waste though, she had found a few interesting things in the passage. The prong that was holding her hair up was one of them. Another was a sharp shard of something reflective, she had been able to see her own face when she had held it up. And the most interesting thing that she had found had been a curved object with a small spike on the foot of it. It was covered in embroidered designs and if she wasn't mistaken, she had heard it described as a 'shoe' once, but she had no idea what it was for. She had shoved all her findings in the satchel she now carried with her everywhere and they would soon be placed with the rest of her collection.

"There's nothing here, Flounder, can you try one more time to come out from the opening," she said desperately. She peered in the opening and seen him shake his head.

"Fine."

Ariel counted herself lucky that the tunnel had had an exit at all, even one she could get through, some of them didn't. This one had led up to the center of a corroded rock. A rock which was just barely above sand level, causing the slit in the rock to be half-buried in the sand which didn't help Flounder any way.

She stretched her arm down the hole and grabbed Flounder's outstretched hand. He grunted in pain as she pulled at him up, trying to tug him through the slit, the hard rock cutting into his chest.

"Okay this won't work." She said dejectedly, letting the merman's hand slide from her grip. "I'll wait for you outside the entrance of the cave. Just… Try to move as fast as possible." She cursed herself even as she said the words.

"Will do." Then he was off and Ariel lost sight of him from the hole in the rock.

Her fist hit the rock, causing silt to rise in the water. It was going to take him a while to make it to the end. The cavern had been thin and barely wide enough for their fins, they hadn't been able to gain speed at all, it was nothing like swimming in the open sea.

Plus, there was always a chance of the cavern collapsing, she shook the thought away as soon as she had it, if she thought about Flounder being trapped or crushed she wasn't going to be able to function correctly.

He would make it out fine, he had too.

She better get moving back towards Atlantis or else she was going to be the one that was late. Glancing behind her at the dark water, the sand fading from view only a short distance from herself, she knew she was not in the court of Atlantis. It was too dark, too quiet, and there were only a few fish passing by, nothing like the riches of her court. She wasn't safe here and she knew it.

As she was ready to leave, her eyes caught on something bright and yellow behind her, a glow of sorts, but when she glanced back, it faded into the murky water. The water around her swished as if a powerful fin had kicked and sent water her way.

She bit her lip and with only a small dose of fear, whirled and swam towards the lighter part of the ocean, towards Atlantis, her home.

* * *

"Where is he?" Ariel asked frustrated. "He should have been back by now," she said to herself.

She was in the outskirts of the kingdom, close enough to actually hear the excitement going on inside. She was hiding under a tall cluster of seaweed, she couldn't risk being spotted by one of the guards that were doing their rounds, there was more of them than usual.

The guards upper bodies were rigid with hard muscle. Their bulky tails dark gray and slicker than the water itself. Thick fins saddled their hips and ran up the arch of their upper back in a tall arc. Each guard had a different looking lighter pattern over their abdomen's where their tail became flesh. They were made for speed and for fighting. They were some of Poseidon's best men. They would help her back to the castle without question, but she wouldn't be able to answer the questions that they would no doubt ask. She couldn't exactly say that she had been looking for human treasures.

She crouched as best she could beside the opening on the sand floor, but Flounder was nowhere to be seen.

"Please, Flounder," she whispered desperately as she heard the singing of the royal family, signifying the beginning of the festival, she could distinctly make out each one of her siblings voices they were so unique. It was a festival that was in her honor. She could not miss this. Even as she thought it she felt drawn to the sound and had to control herself from merely swimming back to them. A mermaid's song was one of the most powerful things they had.

She couldn't wait any longer, if she wasn't there, her father would send out a search group, then she would never have the opportunity to go to the surface.

She looked up at the guard that swam overhead for the third time… if she was going to go, it would have to be now. She moved to swim away.

"You were just going to leave me?"

Ariel didn't even look at him, just jerked Flounder from the cavern hole by his arm, the fin on his forearm digging into her hand. He shoved his black hair from his face and raised an eyebrow at her, she didn't say anything , she was just glad that he had made it.

She checked to make sure none of the guards were looking before emerging from the covering weeds. She was practically pulling Flounder to the city.

"Flounder!" She hissed as she forcibly dragged him.

"What?" He panted as she pulled him through a cluster of seaweed.

The singing was getting louder than ever. More mer people had joined in, the sound was so powerful that it was sending small vibrations through the water, making fish, lobsters, and even clams turn towards the sound. The ocean floor was versatile in its motions and it was putting Ariel on edge.

All schools and breeds of mer people were milling through the city. She watched as a smaller pink-skinned mermaid peeked around a pillar that signified the entrance of the city. Ariel watched at the girls rosy skin started to waver and blend in with the surrounding colors.

For a second she felt a pinch of envy, she would give anything for that power at the moment, but only a few mers could do it.

Ariel prodded Flounder until he went into an opening between two large boulders that were covered in swaying vegetation. She watched with her breath hitched in her throat as a merman slank over the gap in the rocks, staying close to the ground and barely missing them. She had forgotten about the Mer Rays.

The merman's body was longer than most- he was bald headed without hair, which wasn't uncommon for mermen. His back was muscled and covered with stark white skin, but smooth dark blue flesh spaned down the length of his spine, over his flanks and spreading out just like a sting-ray. The wide expanse of the mer's body flowed with the water and tapered off at the end in a long thin tail that ended in a thick corded spike. Ariel's eyes widened as the spike flicked from side to side as if trying to see something that the mer's eyes might have missed.

"My Father, must really be expecting something is he had mer-rays patrolling. They aren't known for their hospitality. When they strike, its once and its over."

Flounder's voice against the back of her neck was hushed and held something else in it, "I think he is expecting something."

Ariel jumped when she realized how close she was to Flounder. Her bare back was shoved up against the smooth ridges of his chest and his arms were against the backs of hers. She eased away when she thought the ray was far enough away. She peeked out over the edge of the boulder and seen the Mer Ray's body ripple through the water, moving just like the water. She avoided looking back at Flounder, though she wondered if he had noticed how close she was to him.

"I think we have a clear shot into the city, are you ready Flounder?"

"I don't think I ever will be." He said dryly, but in a way, Ariel felt the same, but that wasn't about to stop her.

* * *

Amphitrite glanced around at the commoners wallowing in the circle of Atlantis. She watched as her children sang from the balcony of their kingdom, their beautiful music washing over the mer people giving them a sense of pleasure- of belonging. Four daughters and two sons. That was how many children she had given in her relationship to Poseidon. That was how many it should have ended with.

She glanced at her husband, God of the Sea, the great and valiant Poseidon. He sat beside her on his throne of gilded gold stolen from the human world just like the whole city was. His face was blessed with everlasting beauty, no wrinkle, no blemish—just glowing flawless skin.

She spoke out of the side of her mouth, being quiet so her children couldn't overhear, she didn't look at Poseidon as she spoke. She flicked her pretty pink tail as if she didn't have a care in the sea.

"Ariel doesn't need a ceremony."

She caught out of the side of her eye that her words caused Poseidon to stiffen. She watched his finger whiten on the arm of his throne and his jaw visibly clenched. His trim beard and mustache moving with the movements of his mouth as he turned his head to her.

"What did you say, My Queen?"

The words were deadly still and held eons of power in them. She nearly flinched, but turning to look into his eyes, she saw the deep blue clarity, the green water of shores, a man was not meant for such beauty. She curled her lip at him, he didn't deserve her desire for him.

"I said Ariel is not royalty, there is no need for this coming of age, her mother—"

"Amphitrite," his voice was soft and alluring as any mer. He leaned over the arm of his chair. "I want you to swallow your words. She has my blood in her, she is as royal as any of our children."

"But she is not _ours_."

"That's why I love her." He told her smiling. She snorted and straightened her spine as her children finished the royal melody. Her daughters sat down on their smaller thrones to the left of hers and her sons stayed upright to the right of Poseidon.

Poseidon stood up, his body moving fluidly so that the city could see him in all of his glory. He spread his arm wide, welcoming the mers, catering to their cheers. She resisted the urge to silence her people, they shouldn't be this happy.

Her husband's back was to her and ,oh, how she wished she could run her hands along the dips and curves of his physique. He was a god and had a body to match. His tail was rich in color, any color of the sea could be beheld in his tail, from black, to red, to emerald, to orange and even violet. What should have been hideous was beautiful on him. His tail was long and had extended powerful fins, he was a specimen to behold.

"My Creations, my people, and my Followers, I bid you welcome to my kingdom, a kingdom that fell from a land that didn't deserve it—to you who do!" His voice spread over the people like a calming solution. His voice was powerful and impressive, Amphitrite couldn't help but close her eyes and let the deep timbre flow over her skin. "I have dreamed of this day for eighteen long years." The mers were cheering, Amphitrite had to keep from scoffing out loud at their stupidity, didn't they understand that Ariel was no one important—that she was just a bastard between a king and a whore?

Poseidon threw a glance at her as if he could read her mind, but didn't say a word to her and otherwise ignored her as he usually did.

Rhode leaned forward to her mother's elbow and put a hand on hers. "Mother are you feeling alright?"

Listening to Poseidon drone on to his people, she gritted through her teeth to her first-born, "I am a queen, of course, I'm alright."

"My son Triton and my son Proteus!" More cheers as her sons stepped forward. Triton's tail was a light blue whereas Proteus's was stark black. She smiled at her boys as they nodded down at the crowd.

"And my beautiful daughters," he continued gesturing at the royal princesses to stand beside him, "Rhode, Despoine, Ourea, and Aithousa!" Her daughters stood, their hair styled and swirling around them, Rhode glanced back, but Amphitrite nodded encouragingly, though she sent daggers at her husband's back with her eyes.

She braced her hands on the arms of her silver throne as she waited to be introduced by Poseidon to her people, by right it was her turn to be introduced.

"As you know these are not the only members of my family. There is one woman that we are honoring today that I have not yet introduced." Amphitrite stood and stepped forward, "My beloved and youngest daughter Ariella!" The crowd of mer people went wild, Amphitrite watched vivid as mers swam heavenward and twirled and threw jewels into the air as offerings towards them.

Amphitrite was stone solid as she stared down at the people. As the wife of the sea king, she was supposed to be announced at least somewhere in his speech.

"Damn you," she whispered low enough that she thought he couldn't even hear her, but though he wasn't turned towards her she seen his cheek widen in smile. She turned and swam back through the curtains that covered the royal entrance, leaving the festivities behind her.

She didn't want to celebrate the bastard daughter anyway. Of course all of her children deserved the ceremony of coming of age and had gotten it, but Ariel deserved much less than that. She swam through the corridor her blond hair nearly as lengthy as her seashell pink tail. She swam over through the large dining hall that she and the servants had practically raised the children in.

She was in a horrid mood and none of the servants swam towards her. Each window she passed had once been covered by glass, but that was long gone. Now they were just open holes so that water could freely travel through the castle. She glanced out of them as she passed them, looking out to all of her people celebrating a daughter of the king that wasn't even hers.

But there was something that caught her eye. Something very peculiar indeed as she passed a window over-looking the back of the castle.

It was Ariel… with the one merman that was always following her. There was no way that it wasn't Ariel, she would never mistake that red hair anywhere. They were sliding between throngs of mers and Ariel was trying to reach the castle from the back entrance. Poseidon and the rest of the party-goers were on the other side of the castle. Obviously Ariel had been doing something she shouldn't have been or else she wouldn't be trying to enter where she would hope that no one would see her.

And for one of those very few times that Amphitrite actually looked at Ariel. She knew what she had been doing. Because Ariel had something very human, keeping her hair piled on her head.

She watched interested as the merman with her pointed at her hair and gestured to the item. Ariel gave him the small pronged item and her hair tumbled down her back. Amphitrite shrunk away from the windows and hid behind a marble statue that had small crabs running along its surface, keeping it clean of algae. She glanced under the statues arm as Ariel swam up to the window and eased herself through the hole, being careful not to catch her fin on anything.

Ariel had a small bag with her, Amphitrite grinned as she watched Ariel glance around before shoving her bag behind a vase. Ariel than took off running her fingers through her hair, towards the ceremony. Better late than never, Amphitrite chuckled as she swam over to the satchel, snatching it up from behind the vase.

She opened the bag and gasped before the biggest smile that she had ever had and couldn't quite control came to her face. Human upon human item, oh, this couldn't have been better. Closing the satchel and clutching it to her chest. She started swimming away.

Let her husband see what _his_ daughter had been doing. Seeing as his little lover Halia had died by human hands she wondered how he would take his daughter enjoying these little human knick-knacks.

But, Amphitrite's guess was and hoped, that he wouldn't take this news well at all.

* * *

Ariel stuffed the bag behind one of the ugly decorations that her family owned and rushed towards the ceremony balcony.

She'd left Flounder in the crowd of people behind the castle. She figured he was able-minded enough to find his way to the front of the castle—to what was considered Atlantis' circle.

She rushed forward and shoved the curtains out of the way and nearly ran into her father's back.

"Ariella!" He turned and beamed down at her, and as always, every time she looked at him she seen a little of the light in his eyes dim and his smile slack the slightest bit. She had heard that she looked nearly identical to her real mother, and she wasn't sure, but she thought that her father had the hardest time actually looking at her. "Where have you been, I announced you minutes ago, you were to be ready by your siblings singing remember?"

"I remember, Father."

"Then are you ready?"

"I always have been."

He smiled, and she swore he looked a little disappointed at her answer, he turned back to the people and she glimpsed Flounder pushing his way through. She glanced at her sisters Despoine, Ourea, and Aithousa who all smiled and Ourea even gave her a little wave. Rhode reverently ignored her per usual. She then turned to her brothers Triton and Proteus, both of which grinned back. All of her siblings had gone through this already, they were past eighteen.

Poseidon's voice boomed across the ocean, "Every child has to learn one day what the sky holds. Years and years ago it was decided that all merpeople have a chance to surface and see what the land is like. Human men go to sea, so why not mer-people to land. One day is all that I permit my people on the surface and one day is what Ariella will receive and… that day is today." He bowed towards her and held out his hand and said just to her, "Ariella you are my youngest and my last daughter. I give you this one day to see what I suspect you have wanted to see for a very long time." He lowered his voice even more. "But glide carefully through surface waters. Humans are dangerous creatures."

"I know, Father." She had to resist from rolling her eyes. He had installed that fact into her head from day one, just as he had always insisted on calling her by her full name. She'd heard the rumors of the surface dwellers but she believed a whole species couldn't be evil. Take mer for example, not all of them were good and they certainly weren't all bad.

"Well, then," he raised her hand above her head and presented her to the crowd. "I give my daughter Ariella permission to venture to the surface world!" The mer-people cried out and threw colored shells into the air, Ariel covered herself as the shells ran down upon them, opening her eyes to see that mer-people with their wildly colored tails, fins, and hair colors rise into the water like a wave over the castle, hundreds of mer-people screaming out Ariel's name. They started to swim around, circling the castle, going faster and faster, until a water tunnel was created.

Ariel smiled and pushed off the balcony railing to her own people, swimming directly into the middle of the funnel where the people twirled even harder. She spread her arms wide and let the motion of the water send her spiraling towards the surface—a land that she always wanted to see.

She couldn't be more excited.

* * *

Poseidon glanced at Proteus and Triton as Ariel was lifted into the sea by their people. He leaned towards them and he made sure that their eyes were on his.

"You know what I want you to do."

His sons looked at him and nodded together.

* * *

**Author's Note: Howdy, Folks! Okay, I know it's been a while since I've written anything, but it takes me a bit. I hope to have the next Beauty and the Beast chapter up and then the following one for this one, that way they are alternating and I'm spreading my time equally. I've been getting better at updating so I got that going for me. **

**I have taken liberties, a lot of liberties with this story, so I'm sorry if this offends you in any way, but I change things so they make more sense in the end. I've changed most of the names to flow with more of a mythological story line, but I hope you guys enjoy it. **

**Thank you, so much for reading, don't forget to review, follow, fav, whatever as long as you enjoy reading- Happy Reading!**


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